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Want A Good Nights Sleep? Try These Healthy Sleep Habits

We all know the perils of financial debt, but did you know that you can build up debt of sleep also? Getting shortchanged occasionally on your sleep is no a serious problem, but when it happens night after night, you build up a backlog of needed sleep. This sleep debt can affect your mood, health and safety. If you want a good nights sleep, try these healthy sleep habits.

The average person needs around eight and one-half hours of sleep every night. You might need a little less or a little more, but you need this sleep every day, just like you need water and oxygen. Losing just one hour of sleep per day builds up a “sleep debt”.

It’s not just the quantity of sleep that you need, it’s also the quality of sleep. You need a certain amount of deep sleep. During the deepest stages of sleep, your body releases growth hormone to stimulate tissue repair and regeneration. This means that if you don’t get enough good quality sleep, it will adversely affect your physical health.

For example, interrupted or impaired sleep can:

Dramatically weaken your immune system.

Accelerate tumor growth-tumors grow two to three times faster in laboratory animals with severe sleep dysfunctions.

Cause a pre-diabetic state, making you feel hungry even if you’ve already eaten, which can affect your weight gain.

Seriously impair our memory; even a single night of poor sleep can impact your ability to think clearly the next day.

For a good night’s sleep try these healthy sleep habits, by optimizing your sleep sanctuary. To improve your sleep, you may need to modify some of your lifestyle choices, including diet and exercise. When your circadian rhythms are disrupted your body produces less melatonin (a hormone and an anti-oxidant) and has less ability to fight disease, since melatonin helps suppress free radicals.

One study has even shown that people with chronic insomnia have a three times greater risk of dying from any cause. Lost sleep is lost forever, and persistent lack of sleep has a cumulative effect when it comes to disrupting your health. Whether you have trouble falling asleep, waking up too often, or feeling inadequately rested when you wake up in the morning-or maybe you simply want to improve the quality of your sleep-Try these healthy sleep habits:

1. Sleep in complete darkness, or as close to it as possible. Even the tiniest bit of light in the room can disrupt your internal clock and your pineal gland’s production of melatonin and serotonin.

2. Keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 70 degrees.

3. Check the electro-magnetic fields (EMF’s)

4. Take a hot bath, shower before bed. When your body temperature is raised in the late evening, it will help facilitate slumber.

5. Avoid before -bed snacks. Grains and sugars will raise your blood sugar and delay sleep. Later, when the blood sugar drops too low, you may wake up and not be able to fall back asleep.

6. Put your work away at least one hour before bedtime. This will give your mind a chance to unwind so you can go to sleep feeling more calm, not hyped up about deadlines etc.

7. Avoid caffeine. In some people, caffeine is not metabolized efficiently, leaving you feeling its effects long after consumption. So, an afternoon cup of coffee or tea will keep some people from falling asleep at night.

8. Avoid alcohol. Although alcohol will make you drowsy, the effect is short lived and you will often wake-up several hours later, unable to fall back asleep. Alcohol will also keep you from entering the deeper stages of sleep, where your body does most of its healing.

9. Exercise regularly. Exercising for at least 30 minutes per day can improve sleep. However, don’t exercise too close to bedtime or it may keep you awake. Studies show that exercising in the morning is the best if you can manage it.

10. Avoid foods you may be sensitive to. This is particularly true for sugar, grains, and pasteurized dairy. Sensitivity reactions can cause excess congestion, gastrointestinal upset, bloating and gas.

I’m Shirley Noah, I teach the 9 pillars for health. A step-by-step approach to good health. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

Keep Firm Muscle As You Age

Aging muscle needs to be kept in shape, because long periods of no use cause degeneration of cells and are more challenging to overcome. It may seem like common sense that if you don’t keep muscles toned , eventually they will get waste away. Younger muscle tissue has as much as four times more regenerative stem cells compared to old muscle.

If you at all able to move, you can do much to prevent muscle atrophy by incorporating some strength exercise into your healthy lifestyle routine. Start gently and work at a pace that is appropriate for your age and current level of fitness.

Also keep in mind that if you are older, and have been sedentary or immobile for some time, suddenly exercising vigorously can cause scarring and inflammation of your muscles, so start off slowly.

That said, I believe that it is never too late to start an exercise program.

Getting professional help from a properly educated personal trainer or physical therapist is probably the wisest and safest way to go if you are new to exercise, or it has been a period of time.

Muscle Tone

How Strength Training Benefits As You Age

Maintaining healthy muscle tone is not the only benefit from a regular exercise program. Preventing heart disease and osteoporosis are two other major benefits.

A key strategy to reduce your risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases is to keep your inflammation levels low, and visceral fat that shows up in your abdomen and surround your vital organs is another component for reducing risk.

How Does this Work?

The more muscle tone you have, the more calories you burn because they consume calories even when resting and sleeping. So, you gain more muscle and your body naturally increases the number of calories burned, which reduces fat stores.

Strength Training Can Reduce Osteoporosis

Your bones are actually very porous and soft, and as you get older, you bones can easily become less dense and more brittle. Especially if you are inactive.

Resistance training can combat this because as you put more tension on your muscles it puts more pressure on your bones, which then create new bone.

It is Never Too Late

Keep in mind that optimal health is dependent on an active lifestyle, eating fresh, whole foods, and avoiding as many processed foods as possible, and limiting or controlling the stress in your life.

So, start moving, and don’t stop no matter what your age!

And include strength training into your fitness. It is the number one way to remain strong, young and independent well into old age.

I am Shirley Noah, I teach the 9 pillars for health. A step-by-step approach to good health. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.

Breathe Deeply

When you provide a generous flow of oxygen into your body, 100 trillion cells become more alive! This enables the four main organs of your body-the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys- to operate and perform better. Your miracle-working bloodstream purifies and cleanses every part of your body. This helps eliminate toxic wastes as Mother Nature planned, and the fuel and vital oxygen are carried to every cell in your body. We are designed to eliminate 70% of our toxins through breathing. If you do not breathe deeply, you are not ridding your body of toxins. The more toxic poison you burn up, the more vitality you will create!

With plenty of oxygen your muscles, tendons and joints function smoothly! Your skin becomes firmer and more resilient and your complexion clearer and more glowing. You will radiate with greater health and well-being for a longer, healthier life! When you get more oxygen, you sleep better. Oxygen is Mother Nature’s great miracle beautifier.

Deep Breathing Promotes a Healthy Body

When you breath deep your brain will be more alert and your nervous system functions better. You will be free from tension because you can easily take the stresses and pressures in a calmer way. Your emotions will come under control. You’ll feel joyous and exuberant. Many nervous diseases are due to oxygen starvation. Deep, diaphragmatic breathing tranquilizes jangled nerves, stimulates the brain with clear thinking and more alertness to help solve any life problems and make wise decisions. It relaxes the body and releases endorphins-natural pain-killers that create a natural high.

Inhale More Oxygen

People who inhale larger amounts of oxygen are happier people. Super Power Breathing cleanses your body of psychological and physical poisons and gives you more joy and emotional well-being.

With a clean, purified body and an ample supply of oxygen you can enjoy a more youthful, energetic healthful body for a longer life. Now, close your eyes, relax and take a few minutes to do some slow, deep breathing.

Air is an important energizer. The more deeply you breathe pure air, the better your chances are for extending your life. One of the most important of all physical acts is to breath correctly. The rhythm and depth of breath affects the state of your mind and body health. Taking deeper breaths will bring in more oxygen.

Many people suffer from poor circulation in various parts of the body, because they don’t get sufficient oxygen to produce a steady blood circulation into their extremities, they have cold hands, feet, noses and ears. The more oxygen you get into your body, it is better for your circulation, heart, and hands and feet will be warmer.

For further information see my post There’s a “Right” and a “Wrong” Way to Breathe?

I am Shirley Noah, I teach the 9 pillars for health. A step-by-step approach to good health. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future.